IGN's
Half-Life 2 Media Page now offers a link to a Half-Life 2 teaser (the link
was broken for a bit after being posted, but seems to work properly now). The
11.9 MB movie is in QuickTime format. There are also Half-Life
2 Impressions on GameSpot with a detailed rundown on what they saw,
concluding with: "Frankly, we were blown away by what we saw of Half-Life 2
here, and though this was a rolling demo (albeit of real-time gameplay), Valve
proceeded to demonstrate the bug bait level in action, which looked just as good
as in the rolling demo. Based on the 25-minute Half-Life 2 demo, we can say with
reasonable certainty that this is definitely a game worth looking forward to."

"It can't be helped.Its similar to looking into the eyes of a beautiful woman who wants you bad. Your brain looses some of its intellectual cohesion and you start saying things like 'gosh' and 'wow', 'you sure are perty'."

You have to remember, when you see a game like Half Life 2 running for the first time, you WILL act like a dork. It can't be helped.Its similar to looking into the eyes of a beautiful woman who wants you bad. Your brain looses some of its intellectual cohesion and you start saying things like 'gosh' and 'wow', 'you sure are perty'.

Can't wait to get this game home and play it on my original half-life/counter-strike machine. Pentium 133MHz with MMX and 16MB of RAM with two good ol' Voodoo 2 12MB's. Ahh those were the days. This thing has just been waiting for Half-life II.

I'm pretty sure it's just a placeholder. They're not going to reuse one garish bit of old content in the game when they've totally redesigned everything else from the ground up.

I actually found out a little more about the e3 demo. It was an actual demo format that the engine was then playing back: meaning that all the action was "sampled" at a fairly low rate, and then interpolated: giving it a bit of the sorts of hitchy prediction artifacts (like inexact relative timing of various events) that multiplayer games sometimes have. An actual running game doesn't have such problems (though they are pretty hard to see) but Valve decided that the demo playback system was good enough for the purposes of wowing people at e3.This comment was edited on May 21, 19:46.

I have to agree with that one. I'm really excited about HL2 after seeing the E3 videos, but that 2D green blood is completely out of place. I'd prefer no blood spatter at all to that 1998-ish effect. Hmm, maybe it's an homage to the original Half Life.

While we are in nit pick mode, check out frame,LOL, 6:19 on the full half life video. This is the scene where Gordon beats down the zombie and knocks him into the water. What is the deal with the 2d green blood splatter? Lame!

I have no clue whatsoever.

Oh, and the crab zombies head looks plastic as well with that light reflection on top.

While we are in nit pick mode, check out frame,LOL, 6:19 on the full half life video. This is the scene where Gordon beats down the zombie and knocks him into the water. What is the deal with the 2d green blood splatter? Lame! That looks far worse than anything i've seen in the doom video. Oh, and the crab zombies head looks plastic as well with that light reflection on top. hehe

Dues Ex, can it be finished without killing being done? Hmmmm. I didn't experience that. Can't say.

Alright, since it seems you aren't as marked out for DX as I am, I'll explain it to you:Deus Ex was designed to allow the player to choose their own paths through levels and the game (and I'm referring to gameplay, not story, I'm not claiming the story was open-ended). Yet the way that the designers at Ion Storm intended the game, you had to kill three people in order to continue with the the game: Anna, Gunther, and a guy at Area 51...HOWEVER, last year, someone succeeded in using Deus Ex's open-ended gameplay design to actually do what the designers intended as impossible: get through the game without harming a single person, including Gunther, Anna, and the guy at Area 51. Even Warren Spector himself had previously said this was impossible.That is what Systematic Level Design is about. The player creates his/her own solutions to problems the game presents. This is what the physics and design of HL2 allows for.

I know that in Dues Ex 2 they stated that they improved alot on the differnt paths you can take and that 'yes', you can play the whole game stealth and not kill.

In Deus Ex 2, the designers are avoiding making the player kill anyone in order to continue with the game.

I make the statement that Doom will be the first to use true dolby 5.1, then you say that Trent took his work with him when he left. OK. Now think hard. What does that have to do with Doom having true dolby 5.1??? It is still going to have it. The tech didnt leave the engine. This just means somebody else will do the sound work. So, where is that article saying dolby 5.1 wont be in the game?

Dues Ex, can it be finished without killing being done? Hmmmm. I didn't experience that. Can't say. I know that in Dues Ex 2 they stated that they improved alot on the differnt paths you can take and that 'yes', you can play the whole game stealth and not kill.

Oh, and frame 1:19 isn the 'Doom marine. On the guard your talking about, the one that get possesed, I saw some light reflecting off his lip. Not the metalic 'plastic' sheen that was apparent on the trollys or the lab equipment.

I have been on vacation and was reading posts about warez, especially people complaining about software prices... $50 IS volume pricing in the software world. Consumer end software for $50 bucks a pop is not worth complaining about, especially not to the point of stealing software. $20 a CD too much for you? Eat your own shit and die, are any of you in a band? Most (note: most) (repeat: most) bands work harder lives than any of you will ever know for something they feel impassioned about, and NONE of you should have a thing to say about a $20 piece of music. If you don't like all the songs, I can bet you like what you hear on the radio, and if tha tis what you want to buy LOOK FOR THE FUCKING SINGLE. Stealing from record executives is a good idea, from bands, you can go to hell. I develop software, an average product takes about 8 months to go from programmer to usable client end software. Cost per unit for one year? $5000. I realize the market is a very specific one, but one hundredth of the size of the video game market? I don't think so. And while you are on the subject of being oh so opposed to stealing, where are the complaints about your respective governments? From the US and Canada, here are two good contemporary examples: The Pentagon cannot account for over ONE BILLION of YOUR DOLLARS. ONE BILLION. ONE BILLION. That is a shitload of money, and folks, you have bigger fish to fry than some pimply little fuck sitting in his parents office downloading software. It doesn't even affect you! Go chastise your "elected" leaders! LEave that stupid dork alone! For Canadians, your stupid prime minister just spent $ 10 million to influence the rolling stones to come to Toronto! If you pay taxes, you just spent about $1 on the rolling stones, NOT EVEN IN YOUR CITY!!! YES YES YES!!!! Chastise that ignorant dictator before worrying about some nerd... One more thing: LEAVE XOMBIE ALONE! If you have no intelligent rebuttals other than "Leave doom 3 alone, ID ARE GODS!!!!" or some other base comment, DON't TYPE IT! If you wish to argue a point, ARGUE THE FUCKING POINT! You are not reading this forum because of Xombie, if you are you are an idiot, you are here for intelligent discussion/questions about half-life 2...

STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, GET OUT OF THAT BED AND GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR, GET OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE: GET DOWN ON THE CEMENT, I DONT CARE IF YOU'RE NUDE, GET DOWN ON THE CEMENT, I DON'T CARE IF ITS FREEZING! WHERES THE DRUGS, WE KNOW YOU GOT THE DRU

Ummm. are you admiting you were wrong about the Dolby 5.1 issue? LOL, Trent Reznor! You do know that was a silly comment.

No, I'm saying I'm right. When Trent left, he took ALL of his work with him. That includes all the 5.1 work he did.

So your saying they scrapped the Dolby 5.1 tech? They didn't get somebody else to take his place. hes was hired for his talent with making Errie sound fx. Please show me the article where its stated that this tech won't be in the game now

I never said the tech was scrapped. I'm saying the soundwork got scrapped.http://www.theninhotline.com/"Trent's music/sound will not be available for release in the retail game or in any further game demos."

Uh oh. My friend Steve came over with some hot girls. Im going to have to do some quick pushups and go to the pool and keep them company. When I get back I expect to see the article stating that true dolby 5.1 sound has been yanked bud!!